THE SPORT OF ROWING Hand Protocol in Sculling Sculling with one hand passing above the other during the pullthrough and recovery requires that either the shell be canted to one side or the riggers be adjusted so that one oarlock is higher than the other. Donald Walker, British Manly Exercises, 1834, the earliest surviving description of the mechanics of sculling: “When in the middle of the pull, one of the hands will go higher than the other; and as the right is generally the stronger, it may go above, and the left below. “A waterman writes us as Fairbairn, Chats on Rowing Coaches like Steve Fairbairn have been using the “one-hand drill” to teach the use of the inside hand since the 19th Century. follows: ‘As to carrying one hand above the other, my way is that if, for instance, I go from Greenwich to Blackwell against tide, I keep down on the Greenwich side, in general look toward the shore, and having my face over the left shoulder, my right hand is then above. If I go from Greenwich to London, my face is turned over the right shoulder, and the left hand is then uppermost.’”8358 Left-over-right has been the accepted standard in much of the West since it was adopted by scullers at the University of Oxford in the early 19th Century. According to W.B. Woodgate, “the upper hand has a trifle of advantage, and for this reason Oxonians, whose course is a left- hand one,8359 usually scull left hand over.”8360 8358 Walker, pp. 129-30 8359 See map, Chapter 4. 8360 Woodgate, Boating, pp. 126-7 Young Jack Beresford, rowing in Great Britain between the wars, rowed right-over- left. The protocol in GDR during the 1970s and ‘80s was also right-over-left. Rowing with one hand ahead of the other during pullthrough and recovery also has been employed, subconsciously, throughout history. sometimes It is presently the choice of the British National Team. However, I believe that in recent years it has been taught as a conscious choice less often than one hand over the other. Hand Protocol in Sweep Rowing It is universally agreed that in order to prevent tightening of the forearms, a rower should grasp his oar (or his sculls) in his fingers and not tightly in his fists. Likewise, it is well understood that the wrist must be flat during the pullthrough in order to minimize unnecessary muscular involvement. It is also understood that if a 2352
